The present invention relates to vehicle front end components for energy absorption and air flow, and more particularly relates to an energy absorber with integrated air flow management structure incorporated therein, such as shutters and a shutter control mechanism.
In modern passenger vehicles, control of air flow in and around the vehicle's engine is important to engine performance and overall operation. Baffles and air dams are often used, but they usually are fixed and hence limited in their ability to deal with various engine conditions (such as engine temperature at engine start up and continuing operation) and various environmental conditions (such as high or low outside temperatures). Some apparatus are known for actively controlling air flow. However, as best understood, none of the known systems are adapted to work upon failure of its opening mechanism or upon decoupling of shutters from the respective opening mechanism.
There are also additional concerns outside of air control. For example, there is limited space in front of a vehicle engine and around a vehicle's bumper system, and the presence of any air flow control mechanism and control structure can require significant space (sometimes called “real estate”) not available at the vehicle front without adversely/greatly affecting the vehicle's appearance and aerodynamics. Further, vehicle assembly should preferably not be complicated nor made more complex by the need to assembly additional parts and pieces together or to the vehicle. Still further, any system should be durable, robust, and have low warranty, and also should permit operation of the vehicle even in the event of failure of the air flow control mechanism.
Vehicle bumper systems continue to be important to vehicle passenger and pedestrian safety. Many known bumper systems include energy absorbers made of polymeric materials. However no known system integrates a bumper energy absorber for management of impact energy into an air management system for active control of air flow. Further, it is counter-intuitive to make any such combination due to the totally different functions of such parts, due to the different polymeric materials which are used to make them, due to their relatively different positions on a vehicle, and due to the fact that shutter systems include multiple movable subcomponents while a bumper energy absorber is a single component with non-moving parts.